an introduction to conversational leadership · conversational leadership is a style of working...
TRANSCRIPT
An Introduction to
Conversational Leadership
HKKMS/KMIRC half day conference
Nov 2014
Henry of Germany giving a lecture at the
University of Bologna in the 14th century
Have you ever questioned the lecture as
a means of learning?
Show me a Professor of
Education … who
lectures, and I’ll show you
a hypocrite who doesn’t
read the research
Donald Clarke, PlanB Learning
Gurteen Knowledge Café
Strand Palace Hotel
Sept 2002
• Run them all over the world
• Interesting cultural issues
• Format always works
• People naturally love to talk
Global Knowledge Cafés
Organizational
Conversation
Conversation permeates our organizational lives
Organizational Conversation is the myriad of
conversations, both formal and informal, that take place
everyday, minute to minute, within an organization.
Conversation is the life-blood of an organization
Business is a conversation
because the defining work of
business is conversation -
literally.
And 'knowledge workers' are
simply those people whose job
consists of having interesting
conversations.
David Weinberger
The Cluetrain Manifesto
Conversations are the way workers
discover what they know, share it
with their colleagues, and in the
process create new knowledge for
the organisation.
In the new economy,
conversations are the most
important form of work ... so
much so that the conversation is
the organisation.
Alan Weber
Harvard Business Review
Our most effective KM tool is
conversation
The words we choose, the
questions we ask, and the
metaphors we use to explain
ourselves
are what determine our success in
creating new knowledge
as well as sharing that knowledge
with each other.
Nancy Dixon
Common Knowledge
Conversation is Action
How some organizations are tapping
into the power of conversation
(and you could too)
• A meeting can get chaotic when you try to explore ideas and make decisions at the same time
• Breaking it into two separate meetings can greatly improve things
• Megan Morys, Harwell, Oxford
Transform Meetings
Interview with Megan Morys, Harwell, Oxford
at a Knowledge Café Workshop
Royal Society of Arts, London 2012
Randomised Coffee Trials (RCTs)
• A Randomised Coffee Trial is a simple way to bring
people together in pairs at random from across an
organization to have coffee once a month
• Some RCTs are spent entirely on work-related
matters, others are entirely personal in nature
• The coffee meeting can even be via Skype as with the
Red Cross Red Crescent
Randomised Coffee Trials
Red Cross Red Crescent
Randomised Coffee Trials
RCTs give people an ‘excuse’ to meet & build
connections with other people in the organization
People from different parts of the organization discover
unexpected synergies between their work
Increase their level of comfort for later approaching each
other to potentially collaboration
Nesta is an innovation charity with a
mission to help people and
organizations bring great ideas to life
Institutionalizing Serendipidity
Breaking down Silos
• Bank of England
– One Bank
• British Library
– One British Library
• UK Cabinet Office
• Dept. of Education
• Scottish Government
• Surrey County Council
• National Audit Office
• Bank of England
• British Library
• UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)
• Mars
• Royal Society of Arts
• Red Cross Red Crescent
• KHDA (Dubai)
Organizations running RCTs
Conversational Leadership
Conversational Leadership is a style of
working where everyone in an organization
understands the transformative power of
conversation.
They take a conversational approach to the
way that they connect, relate and work with
each other.
David Gurteen
• Modify their behavior to take a conversational approach to the way that they work and interact with each other.
• Are conversational catalysts and purposefully nurture and stimulate the natural conversations that take place in the organization.
• Help build a strong social fabric and a sense of community by connecting people and helping them build relationships with each other.
• Practice daily conversational methods such as peer assists, after action reviews and knowledge cafés.
• Are conversational architects - they identify the strategic conversations that need to take place in the organization; the questions to trigger them and design the processes to convene and host them.
Conversational Leaders
I view anyone with a sphere of
influence as a “leader,” whether or not
she has that explicit job description
Daniel Goleman
Who is talking about Conversational Leadership?
• World Café: Juanita Brown & David Isaacs
• Talk Inc. by Boris Groysberg & Michael Slind
• Nancy Dixon
• Henry Mintzberg
• Gervase Bushe
• Peter Block
If you would like
to learn more
drop me an [email protected]
Question
What are the possibilities for transforming
our organizations through taking a more
conversational approach to the way we work?
www.gurteen.com
David GURTEEN
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 7774 178 650
Email: [email protected]